Describe an ambition that you have had for a long time.

So the ambition I'd like to talk about is something I've been quietly nurturing for years — writing and actually publishing a novel. It sounds a bit romantic, I know, but it's genuinely the one thing I keep coming back to.

I think the seed was planted when I was around thirteen. I was a bookworm as a kid — I'd devour anything I could get my hands on — and one summer I read a novel that completely swept me off my feet. I remember closing it and thinking, "I'd give anything to make someone else feel the way this just made me feel." That was the moment it clicked, and honestly it's stuck with me ever since.

As for what I've done, well, I've chipped away at it bit by bit rather than in one heroic burst. I keep a journal religiously, I've taken a couple of creative-writing courses online, and I've filled I-don't-know-how-many notebooks with half-baked ideas and stray characters. I've even finished two rough drafts — both pretty terrible, to be fair — but they taught me a huge amount about discipline and just showing up at the desk.

Why does it matter so much? I suppose because it's the truest expression of who I am. A lot of what we do in life is fleeting, but a book outlives you — it's something you leave behind. And there's this deep, almost stubborn part of me that wants to prove I can see something that daunting through to the end. That, to me, would be an achievement worth every ounce of effort.